Balancing Team - System

[black hand]

After playing numerous pubs, I really think we should implement a balancing team system to balance out the teams in pubs to make the game more enjoyable for the new bloods and even some veterans.

Usually I go into a game and see people who have the same clan tag on are usually all on the same team making the teams imbalanced. Or it's because people just switch mid-way in the pub to the winning team.

I think that if you join a pub you should be put on the team with less players (thats not always the case) there might be two teams with the same number of people on them but the scores are horribly lopsided and one team is winning 8-1 or some score where the other team has no chance of winning.

So I think that we should put on a system where if you join a pub you are put on the team with the least amount of players, and if both teams have the same # of players then you are put on the team with the lower score, and if you have two teams who have the same # of players and are tied, you have the option of joining whatever team you want.

I also think that the team stacking in pubs is causing trouble also, I see the teams horribly imbalanced because people who are on the same clan together want to play with their friends so they switch to their team. I think we should make something where only 3 people on one clan can be on the same team. So that way teams don't get horribly stacked and so it's not a fun experience for anyone if that happens.

I hope you take the time to read this considering pubs get pretty bad these days.

Also I believe you should not be able to switch teams mid-game, so once you join a team you would be locked in it. Just so that stacking doesn't go on.

 

[Abandoned]

As a capper in a pub, if you cap numerous times and you're team is winning 8-1. I would switch teams, although this will make the team unbalanced, it doesn't matter. It all works out. The team is losing by 8-1 for a reason.

I gotta remind you this is a pub. A public game is not always serious gameplay. If you want serious gameplay, go join some pugs.
Sorry if this sounded hostile, but theres not much you can really do about the teams in a pub.
I would see some newbie switching teams, making the other team uneven. I would tell him/her to switch back, and all I get is "Why should I?" or on the lines of that. Now as a normal player I can't teamkill/grief/threaten etc, him until he switches, that wouldn't help at all as we are currently trying to make L:O a newbie friendly environment.

 

[DOS4/GW]

An issue prevalent in multiplayer games since their conception. It is a much bigger problem with Legions due to its small community, and the fact that a very large portion of players-if not the majority-are in clans.

The only real remedy to this, I think, is player-count auto-balancing. Players should be able to switch teams if there is an opportunity, but if an imbalance occurs, the players that have been on one particular team for the least amount of time (likely those who recently switched) should be the first to be moved. This way, clan members are free to try to be on the same team, but it will not be possible with every match.

Balancing based on score isn't really practical, and would likely harm the game more than it would help it. A 10-0 game can be frustrating, it's true. But by discouraging or preventing such an outcome, we lose out on the possibility of some interesting or thrilling game scenarios, such as last minute comebacks; desperate, intense fights; etc. Imagine if there was never more than a 2-3 point difference in nearly every game. Things would easily become boring. Were it to happen more times than not, the satisfaction that comes from playing a close game would quickly fade.

We can't make every game balanced, but we can do something to preserve the randomized state of the teams. Random is always fair.

 

[w00tyou]

Lol, cannot be achieved successfully in pubs. ATM

1. Add skill level system your Levels can move around depending how good you are as a team player.
2. Lock down slots, players cannot switch teams.
3. Write algorithm to even out numbers and skill levels.
4. Add Vote Map Change

Fixed pubs in the team balance sense. Problem?

 

[DOS4/GW]

Lol, cannot be achieved successfully in pubs. ATM

1. Add skill level system your Levels can move around depending how good you are as a team player.
2. Lock down slots, players cannot switch teams.
3. Write algorithm to even out numbers and skill levels.
4. Add Vote Map Change

Fixed pubs in the team balance sense. Problem?

Yes, problem, at least with 1-3. Making it so switching teams is never permissible, even when it will not create lopsided teams, is a bit draconian. Evening out the teams through skill levels and algorithms would be an enormous headache and would likely backfire. How often would the teams be evened out by skill? Every 5 minutes? Getting switched back and forth several times in one match would be very annoying.

Even if it did work, as I said above:

Balancing based on score isn't really practical, and would likely harm the game more than it would help it. A 10-0 game can be frustrating, it's true. But by discouraging or preventing such an outcome, we lose out on the possibility of some interesting or thrilling game scenarios, such as last minute comebacks; desperate, intense fights; etc. Imagine if there was never more than a 2-3 point difference in nearly every game. Things would easily become boring. Were it to happen more times than not, the satisfaction that comes from playing a close game would quickly fade.

 

[w00tyou]

This is why i play pugs.
Balancing the 3 points i gave is hard, but possible.
You just need to think outside of the box.

 

[Immanent]

If you sty long enough in a community you will be able to tell which teams are stacked
eg: pullute and riptack are on the same team and up 8-1.
Nuf said?

 

[rock]

This is a simple solution....bad players need to get better or rather begin to attempt to start to get slightly better for once instead of duel duel duel duel duel....flag is #1

 

[Dacil]

This is a simple solution....bad players need to get better or rather begin to attempt to start to get slightly better for once instead of duel duel duel duel duel....flag is #1

not really

 

[NightHawk043]

Personally I'd set it up so that the game stores the scores from the previous game, lists the players in a single list with highest score at the top and lowest at the bottom, then just go the old alternates.

Yes, I know this doesn't work if a super-good person joins late game in the previous game and get's a low score, And that score doesn't always correlate to skill level.
However, on average this would be a greater system, as the better players Often get a better score, and those who join late in one game, will probably play the whole of the next game, so it'll work for them properly the next game.

Ultimately, teams also become Much more varied, probably changing dramatically every game.
This feature would of course be disabled for the private servers.

Should point out, I stress this is different to the "skill level" thing suggested above, as to be honest, such a thing would be enormously hard to calculate as there are so many variables.
For example, some peoples high skill level might simply be shown by the fact that a large number of people run into them.
Now either this means that they deliberately run around crashing into everything they can, or they body block people a lot.
And You'll say that those people will also have other things that'll add up to show higher skill, to which I add, chances are, It'll also add up to a higher score.

 

[Armageddon]

There is still another problem with trying to balance any match, positions.

Say you have Karnage/Gravis in a pub on one team both playing Sent as they do and they score low but are the main reason that team wins the match the system Night Hawk suggested would still place them on the same team together. Balancing legions will never be 100% perfect i would settle for just balancing team players. Less 8vs4 games would be nice.

 

[MJ1284]

Personally I'd set it up so that the game stores the scores from the previous game, lists the players in a single list with highest score at the top and lowest at the bottom, then just go the old alternates.

Yes, I know this doesn't work if a super-good person joins late game in the previous game and get's a low score, And that score doesn't always correlate to skill level.
However, on average this would be a greater system, as the better players Often get a better score, and those who join late in one game, will probably play the whole of the next game, so it'll work for them properly the next game.

I think it'd be better to set it up so that the game stores each players stats (Grabs, caps, frags etc.), which IMO is little more accurate way to measure skill level than score since some roles tend to rack up points much quicker than others (base def. accumulates more points than cappers since they're constantly fragging something). Game would then look up for two top-ranked persons, in each category, on that round (two players with most frags, two players with most caps) and split them accordingly to Alpha and Beta.

 

[Royalty]

It's a good idea. But I think that we should leave it up to good players to switch teams by themselves.

 

[Redvan]

It's a good idea. But I think that we should leave it up to good players to switch teams by themselves.

This generally happens and is the best option.

 

[UtadaHikaru]

This generally happens and is the best option.

I have yet to see this on more than just the occasion where it's me switching teams.

 

[MJ1284]

It's a good idea. But I think that we should leave it up to good players to switch teams by themselves.

This generally happens and is the best option.

Since when?

 

[Redvan]

he said "leave it up to good players to switch teams by themselves". If you don't see it happening, I guess there are no good players in that game.

 

[MJ1284]

Oh there's good players alright, they're just stacking one team on purpose. They refuse to switch because "it's 6vs6, it's balanced despite the fact we've capped 7 times within five minutes".

 

[Redvan]

Oh there's good players alright, they're just stacking one team on purpose. They refuse to switch because "it's 6vs6, it's balanced despite the fact we've capped 7 times within five minutes".

ahh yes... that happens once in a while... hardly as often as people like to complain about it. If you consider all the games you've played, and look at how many have been in this situation, you'll find that the majority is not like this. Then you add in all the games you haven't played and realize that an even lesser % of games are like this. The reason people like to complain about it is because they get rolled and r mad bro.

And you have to remember that a team capping 7 times in 5 min happens with completely random teams as well. That's not necessarily indicative of "team stacking". It's going to happen. Roll with it and move on to the next game.

I gotta remind you this is a pub. A public game is not always serious gameplay. If you want serious gameplay, go join some pugs.

Yes, don't take PUBs seriously, if you're getting mad because of team stacks once in a while, you're probably taking it too seriously.

 

[MJ1284]

And you have to remember that a team capping 7 times in 5 min happens with completely random teams as well. That's not necessarily indicative of "team stacking". It's going to happen. Roll with it and move on to the next game.

By the time I get "rolled" 4th time in a row I'm starting to think it's more than just bad luck with lottery. I've played grand total of 8 matches past month or so and without exaggurating 6/8 were bad because there was clear difference between the teams and nobody on winning side arsed to look into it.

Yes, don't take PUBs seriously, if you're getting mad because of team stacks once in a while, you're probably taking it too seriously.

I think you got it wrong. I'm mad because it feels like it takes hell a lot effort to even find game that hasn't got fubar teambalance, when playing casually (non-competetively) it really feels frustrating that you join a game and try to have good time but game denies it by throwing *chocolate cookies* like that at you CONSTANTLY.

Short story: All I'm trying to do is join a game and have fun but seems like that's too much to ask, that's what pisses me off.